or a chat with the Senora who always knew the latest gossip.

In her youth she had been noted for her beauty, and even now, in spite
of middle-age and somewhat faded features, the latter the result of the
struggle she had undergone to reestablish herself in the world, she was
still considered buxom and fair to look upon by the majority of men. She
carried her head high and with a coquettish air which plainly showed she
had by no means relinquished her hold upon life.

On this particular morning she looked unusually well as she moved about
the _patio_ engaged with her women in assorting a huge basket of freshly
laundered household linen. Not a strand of silver was visible in her
jet black hair, adorned with a large tortoise-shell comb and a single
Castilian rose. Her gay, low-necked, short sleeved bodice, exposing her
shapely neck and arms, harmonized well with her short, black silken
_saya_ which rustled with every movement she made and from beneath which
protruded a small pair of high instepped feet encased in black slippers
ornamented with large quaint silver buckles.

It was the Senora's birthday. She had risen earlier than usual prepared
to receive the congratulations of her friends who, she knew, would be
sure to call during the day in honor of the occasion. A few of them
would be asked to remain and dine with her in the evening.

It was on a similar occasion that Chiquita had danced in the _patio_
before her guests.

The innate vanity of the woman might have led one to suppose that she
would let the years pass unnoticed, but not so. The old, time-honored
custom of the country must be observed lest her friends might say:
Senora Fernandez is already laying by for a ripe old age, the mere
suggestion of which on the part of the world would have been enough to
throw her into one of those uncontrollable fits of rage for which she
was noted.

Artful, shrewd and scheming though she was, her susceptibility to
flattery was her weak point, amounting almost to a mania. To be told
that she still looked as young and handsome as in the days when the
years justified the statement, was to win her immediate esteem. The lack
of this servile attitude and cringing civility on Chiquita's part,
together with the knowledge of her own superiority which she never
hesitated to show when occasion required, had drawn down the Senora's
enmity upon her. Whereas, an occasional soft word or smile of
acquiescence--she demanded so little--wo